I've been using Firefox continuously since before v1. Mozilla has certainly done a few things with Firefox (and Thunderbird) that I didn't much like; Rapid Release, for instance, has been really annoying as an end user (though it may, perhaps, have been a good thing regarding development). However, as someone who for years now has spent more than a little time with each release delving into the internals of Firefox in order to write custom CSS to alter its appearance, I have to say that Firefox 29 with Australis is definitely the best Firefox yet.
I encountered one "serious" issue with Firefox 29 related to non-default settings that caused Firefox to crash randomly, but once I reset them to their defaults the issue vanished--no problems since. (The cause of the problem turned out to have been ongoing since release 26 or 27.)
Removing the Add-on bar (hiding it actually) seemed like an unnecessary thing to do, but I found that I didn't need it anyway. And since you can get it back with an add-on (ironic) if you do need it, Firefox is what it's always been: highly configurable (more so than any other browser).
Many "long-time users" have complained about Firefox looking like Google Chrome. Well, once you stop looking at the tab shape and the menu button, Firefox looks like it always has: like Firefox. And that's a beautiful thing.
Firefox... still the best, and better than ever.
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I tried version 1 quite awhile ago and found it to not have a needed feature or two to be really useful for me. Version 2 remedies this issue. It's just as simple yet quicker to use since screenshots can be saved automatically with the datetime of the screenshot in the name. Version 2 does everything I need a capture tool to do--no muss, no fuss. The interface looks better, too.
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I've been using portable apps from PortableApps.com for close to a decade. I've only recently begun using their "platform" (launcher). It's like having your own private Start menu in Windows--very convenient, very simple. Throw in a dozen or more of their apps, and you've got just about all the tools you need to get stuff done, wherever you are.
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Take Thunderbird, make it look better, give it more features--especially for users of Gmail... and you've got Postbox. Many, if not most, of the useful add-ons for Thunderbird can work in Postbox with the addition of a few lines in the add-on's install.rdf file (just to let the add-on recognize Postbox).
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Mashup WordPad with some OneNote functions, and you've got Jarte! The interface takes a little getting used to because there's so much there compared to simple WordPad. There's an exceptional attention to detail, also evident with the online help. Jarte Plus adds some features which you might find useful, but the free version has enough for me to want to pay the fee. With the document formatting and embedding along with the screen capture and "favorite" features, I can do just about everything in Jarte that I've been relying on OneNote for over the past decade--all in a nice portable format (which makes it easier to keep in a TrueCrypt drive).
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Thunderbird has been a solid program for a long time, and with all the add-ons available you can extend the feature set. Lately, though, the layout and design have received major enhancements (part of being tied to Firefox dev no doubt). More than simply about all the themes and personas available, the default font settings, for instance, make everything easier to read (which is what's really important with messaging); spacing is better, too. Essentially, once installed you don't really have to do much else with the appearance than add a little color (of your choosing). Another somewhat recent improvement is the basic assistance available for setting up new email accounts, which used to be a little "quirky", but now has also become solid. Right now, I'd say that Thunderbird v9 is the best program available for accessing POP andor IMAP accounts. Simply sending and receiving messages has never been easier.
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I've been using NetWorx for several years (the portable version); it has more than enough features for usage and reporting and an easy to customize appearance. It's a simple but complete tool for network traffic monitoring.
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I use fb2k (0.9.x) for my library player, primarily for the easy playlist and library mgmt; but I installed Spider Player for its easy SHOUTcast access and good simple interface. Looks good, sounds good, easy to find stations and save them as "favorites" in a playlist.
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It's still new and has a ways to go. Version 4 is now "stable" and brings a lot of useful enhancements (extensions support!). It's a particularly good browser for accessing the Google apps sites. I'm not going to stop using Firefox for most everything (yet--I'm not sure I like some of Mozilla's recent decisions about what to integrate into the base Firefox code [Personas for instance]), but Chrome is definitely worth using, and getting better with every new release.
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Works well and is easy to use; the icons are very well done. The only thing I dislike about the Free version is that the folder color settings aren't "portable" (what the author calls "distributable", the icon is located in the folder), which isn't a problem if you don't move your folders around (on the same machine or onto other machines)--you need the Home (shareware) version for that.
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The program itself is pretty good. The only place it really comes up short is with the icons themselves for the larger/tile icons--no transparency (ragged edges). A more precise color picker might be nice. All in all, if you want "prettier" folder icons with different colors, then you can download icon sets or create them yourself (and create your own desktop.ini file for each folder). If you want a simple, free process for colorizing folder icons and you use the list/detail views instead of large/tile views, then you should like this program well enough. Otherwise, I'd suggest Folder Marker (shareware) or "roll your own" icons.
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Before Miro I used Firefox to download and VLC to play videocasts (Tekzilla et al). Miro has a Mozilla base and uses VLC components for playing, but now I have RSS to keep me up-to-date auto-magically. Options and features are sparse still, but it has all you need to get the job done. Layout is typical for an aggregator; H.264 hi-def looks great. Interface needs some finishing touches. Well worth using.
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A music player is about managing and playing your music files. No program does this better than fb2k. If you want a fancy interface, then throw in some foo components, and you can make it look like anything you want it to. fb2k is "bare bones" in the same sense that Firefox is bare-bones: the user can make it almost anything he/she wants it to be simply by installing some addons. Totally extensible. Highest audio quality.
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I wanted a small calendar to put on the desktop above the system tray that's easy to navigate. Rainlendar is easy to read and blends well with the desktop. I like the default skin except for the large "Today" circle that obliterates the double-digit dates, but no problem--I just created my own rectangular border and replaced the default one with mine. (So if you're into skinning, then you can go crazy with Rainlendar.) The only negative thing I have to say about it at all is that since the author lives in Finland, which is one of the places in the world that follows the ISO 8601 standard for week dates, the numbering is usually wrong based on a "standard" US calendar; but this is easy to adjust in the options, or you can just turn them off if you don't need them. The negative of this, though, is that the last time I checked, the Rainlendar Help didn't cover this "anomaly" clearly enough for a typical user (or maybe just me).
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FreeCommander has always been a solid and stable product. With the latest release the interface has been updated with support for ClearType (making it easier to read) and even more user-customizable functions to speed up access to the things you do most often. You can go to the FreeCommander site to get a portable version (for USB install) as well as a Zip version for manual install (and to see images of the new release--the images here at SnapFiles are for the older releases). Love it!
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It's still in beta, though likely not for much longer. It's partially based on IE, but IE does have excellent support for feeds now. Ziepod gives you an all-in-one solution for finding (tied to feedzie) and managing your podcast feeds. There are still some display quirks to be ironed out, but it's fun to use and way more helpful and complete than all of the alternatives that I've seen. The only real competition I see for it right now is Songbird, which is likely years away from offering even the partial solution for podcast management which it has planned. If you want a podcast helper app, then, for now, Ziepod is it.
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While it does offer a clock, several in fact, SymmTime is first and foremost an NTP client for time synchronization. I've used a few over the past 20 years, and this has been one of the most reliable and solid. It offers a lot of configuration options for appearance and function--maybe too many for some, but it will keep your PC "on time".
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